IR Abas Abdullah, Director of Pengurusan Air Selangor spoke at press conference on Air Selangor’s Phase 3 Sungai Selangor Water Treatment Plant (WTP SSP3) will experience a temporary complete shutdown in order to carry out essential improvement works on -Art Chen/The Star.
CREATING an interconnected system to link all its water treatment plants (WTP) is one of Air Selangor's long-term plans to improve its supply and distribution services.
"By having an interconnected system, we can channel water from one WTP to another during incidents such as pollution or unscheduled disruptions," said Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd head of operations Abas Abdullah.
"However, we will need to have a water reserve margin of more than 20% at all our existing WTP before we can look at building the system. The present water reserve margin stands at 10% to 11%," said Abas during a media briefing at the Semenyih 2 WTP located in Dengkil on Thursday (Aug 18).
He added that 34 of Air Selangor's WTPs currently supply some 5,100 to 5,200 million litres per day (MLD) to consumers in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.
"While the present water reserve margin of 20% could be calculated based on the 5,100 to 5,200 MLD, we need to factor in increased water usage for an increased population in the future," said Abas.
He said Air Selangor expects to have a higher water reserve margin by early 2030 upon the completion of phase two of both the Langat 2 WTP and Sungai Rasau WTP.
The Semenyih 2 WTP is the first automated water treatment plant in Malaysia. It started operations in March 2018 and has a 100 MLD capacity.
It utilises the off-river storage (ORS) system to abstract water and as a method to store raw water supply in ponds near the plant.
This enables Semenyih 2 WTP to continue producing treated water during unforeseen incidents such as pollution that affect raw water sources.
In his briefing, Air Selangor head of southern region Mohd Yunus Othman said: "The ORS is a more economical water distribution system (compared to conventional systems). There are less chances of water supply disruption if a WTP is shut due to pollution, as ponds linked to the ORS scheme have a longer water reserve period, typically between 28 to 33 days."
Abas added that there are plans to implement full automation at Air Selangor's two other plants that use the ORS system, namely Labohan Dagang WTP (200 MLD) and Sungai Labu WTP (105 MLD).
